Development Of The Carol Essay -- essays research papers

The eonal songs popular in western harmony, specially in conjunction with the Christmas season, known as carols, devour a adequate and complex history full of custom and controversy in the realms of twain sacred and secular music.     The concept of blab outing carols to celebrate holidays developed du hem in the thirteenth century in France, although what was to be known as carol music had been around from centuries earlier. It is believed that when troubadour Saint Francis of Assisi had made the first Greccio crib, he began to sing songs honoring the Nativity and the joy of celebration in religion, for this was a stiff Puritanical era wherein communal singing, drama, and any type of festivity was looked tear down upon in the first place, and absolutely abhorred in religion.     The concept of singing these carols gained popularity passim Europe towards the residuum of Puritan reign and the growth of the Mystery roleplay throughou t the 14th and 15th centuries. The Mystery Plays were dramatic pieces celebrating the birth of Christ. The primary plainsong and antiphon of the time were lacking the drama required by these performances, and soon religious songs for these performances were being written in the vernacular for these plays. The fluid popular English "Coventry Carol" dates back to this period. By the end of the 15th century, carols had begun to stand on their own as anonymous pieces of music, and were slime on almost all religious feast days, including Christmas, Easter, and throughout the stand out in celebration of the peoples emancipation from Puritanism.     As mentioned earlier, the music that these aboriginal carols were found on dates back to the 9th and 10th centuries Medieval period, where it was used as bound music. The word carol itself is derived form the Latin "choraula," which was a monophonic ring dance accompanied by singing during the Medieval era. The form of the early carols followed the binary structure of these dances. It consisted of the stanza, which was basically a verse, and was used as a resting point for the dancers, and the burden, which was a theme repeated at the beginning and determination of distributively piece as well as between each stanza. It expressed a sort of summary of the music, and was the time for the dancers to really swing.     Anothe... ...the nineteenth century, the better carol music had been weeded out form the worse, and it began to be smooth in a more systematic fashion. Countries throughout Europe began to aggregate their doddery carol clan songs into collections of national music. An innumerable number of old carol tunes that were hidden in the memory of old country folk were rediscovered and published for the first time.     Today Christmas remains the most popular season to celebrate with carols. America has birthed her own collection of Christmas carols, although one will date these more modern 20th century carols to have much little of a connection with religion, if any at all, than the older European carols. A wide variety of carols form various geographic areas and eras continue to be sung by choirs and vocal ensembles, in churches, and for various forms of entertainment. There have even been instrumental arrangements and contemporary renditions of many a(prenominal) of the older carols. Although in many ways the carol has been modernized, especially in the American culture, the beautiful control and antiquity of the music, as well as the remarkable history and tradition they imply, cannot be ignored.